Mary Lincoln, wife of the 16th president of the United States, has rarely had a good press. As first lady she was criticised for her extravagance, pilloried for her attention-seeking, and even accused of being a traitor. Her son Robert had her committed to a mental institution following her husband Abraham’s assassination. Many historians have portrayed her as an intemperate, even violent figure.
John Ransom Phillips questions this depiction in his new play, which imagines Lincoln on her visits to Mathew Brady, the famous American photographer who took the portraits by which she is most recognised today. There’s an instant clash of egos between the regal Lincoln, taking up literal space in her vast hooped dress, and Brady, pursuing his own tyrannical artistic vision. “I shape the image of the people who shape America,” he cries, with mad scientist energy. “So I am shaping America!”
